The Corporation council meeting held here on Friday resolved to set up modular toilets at select 14 places at an estimated outlay of Rs 3.5 crore.
Mayor Visalakshi Apukutty said these toilets would be coming up in wards 3,6,18, 21, 31, 32, 35, 36, 38, 52 and 53 under ‘Namma toilet’ scheme.
Corporation Commissioner K. R. Selvaraj said each toilet complex would have five to six seats and would function as community toilets.
The administration plans to obtain grants from the State Government to offset the capital expenditure for the project.
During the meeting, councillors representing CPI, CPI (M) and DMK staged walk out in protest against the move to privatise solid waste management (SWM) project in select 30 wards out of the total 60 wards.
They pointed out that the handing over of the SWM project would only increase the cost of garbage collection.
“The present method of collecting garbage through various women Self Help Groups has been effective. Why then, the need to privatise the project?” they wondered. For the opposition councillors, there was surprise support from the ruling party too.
S. R. Jayakumar of AIADMK said that he could not morally accept the concept of privatising the said SWM project for 30 wards.
K. Marappan of CPI (M) asked why there was a huge delay in filling the vacancies of two councillor posts caused by the death of the incumbents last year.
“The rule clearly asks to conduct by-elections within six months to fill the vacancies,” he pointed out.
S. Ravichandran of CPI expressed dissatisfaction over the inadequate medical infrastructure and manpower in the Corporation-run maternity hospital near Bungalow stop. “It does not even have X-ray,” he said.
Some other major complaints raised by councillors include mosquito menace, poor laying of black top surfaces on the roads which comes off in quick time and lack of adequate drainage.
Deputy Mayor S Gunasekaran was present in the meeting.
